1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a timepiece, and more particularly to a timepiece including a device for detecting and correcting the relative positions of rotary members and/or hands thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various kinds of typical timepieces have been developed, and may be used for automatically setting or detecting or correcting the time or the rotary members or the hands thereof. In addition, the various kinds of typical timepieces may be used for receiving the time signals from the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), the radio stations, or the like, and may correct or set the time accordingly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,661 to Bryant, Jr., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,398 to Lemelson disclose two of the typical timepieces, and comprise a complicated electric circuit for detecting and/or decoding and/or correcting the time of the timepieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,358,753 to Cascini, U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,140 to Kohata et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,007 to Talbott et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,930,205 to Baba et al. disclose the other four typical timepieces, and each may include a number of illumination devices, scanning devices, photo elements for emitting and receiving lights respectively, to detect and to correct the positions of the wheels and/or hands.
In most of the typical timepieces, a number of rotary wheels are required to be provided and coupled between the hands and the motors, such as the step motors, for allowing the hands to be rotated or driven by the motors. The rotary wheels each may include one or more holes or orifices, and the holes or orifices of all of the three rotary wheels should be aligned with each other for allowing the lights generated by the light or illumination devices to be emitted through the holes or orifices of the rotary wheels.
Accordingly, a complicated mechanism or device or configuration is required to be provided for detecting or determining whether the holes or orifices are aligned with each other. The light may only be emitted through the holes or orifices of the rotary wheels by chance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,612 to Allgaier et al. discloses a further typical timepiece including a reflex barrier or a detecting device disposed on one side of a number of wheels, and having a sending part and a receiving part, and a rear mirror disposed on the other side of the wheels.
The wheels of the typical timepieces each includes a number of holes or orifices formed therein for receiving the lights emitted by the illumination device. The holes of the wheels should be aligned with each other for allowing the light to emit through the holes of the wheels simultaneously, and for allowing the lights to be reflected to the receiving parts of the detecting device.
However, it may take a long time before the holes of the wheels may be aligned with each other. For some of the typical timepieces, it may take twelve hours or even twenty four hours for allowing the holes of the wheels to be aligned with each other, and for allowing the light to emit through the holes of the wheels simultaneously.
Particularly, the first wheel that faces the reflex barrier includes a reflective wheel disk disposed thereon for reflecting the light generated by the light devices. The reflective wheel disk includes a single hole for allowing the light to emit through the hole of the reflective wheel disk. However, no other devices or mechanisms may be provided for positively determining or locating the hole of the reflective wheel disk, such that the timepiece may not readily know whether the light has been aligned with the hole of the reflective wheel disk or not, and should determine the alignment of the hole of the reflective wheel disk with the reflex barrier with try and error methods.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,062 to Ernst discloses a further timepiece including a reference mark for determining the zero point of an incremental scale, and for being aligned or scanned through the corresponding scanning aperture of the scanning plate.
However, similarly, the wheels or plates should all include a number of holes provided therein. In addition, a number of illumination devices are required to be provided for generating lights through various holes or orifices of the wheels or plates. Furthermore, the timepiece also should determine the alignment of the hole of the reflective wheel disk with the illumination device with try and error methods.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional timepieces.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a timepiece including a simplified device or configuration for detecting and correcting the relative positions of rotary members and hands of the timepiece.
The other objective of the present invention is to provide a timepiece including an initializing or starting code for positively determining the aperture of the first rotary member and thus for easily and readily detecting and correcting the relative positions of rotary members and hands of the timepiece.
The further objective of the present invention is to provide a timepiece including a code arranged in a circle on a rotary member for determining the relative position between the rotary members.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided a timepiece comprising a light emitting device for generating a light, a reference wheel including at least one orifice formed therein for receiving the light generated by the light emitting device, a device for aligning the orifice of the reference wheel with the light emitting device, a target wheel including a binary code sequence having a plurality of digits provided thereon each representing an xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d signal digit or an xe2x80x9coffxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d signal digit, a plurality of reflective members arranged on the target wheel and disposed on positions corresponding to the xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d signal digits of the binary code sequence of the target wheel, for reflecting the light generated by the light emitting device, means for driving the reference wheel and the target wheel separately, and a light receiving device for receiving the light reflected from the reflective members to determine the xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d signal digits of the binary code sequence of the target wheel. The position of the target wheel may be determined when several digits of the binary code sequence are detected by the light receiving device.
The digits of the binary code sequence are arranged in a circle on the target wheel, and may include such as twenty four digits equally spaced from each other.
The aligning device includes at least one second reflective member provided on the reference wheel for reflecting the light generated by the light emitting device and to determine location of the orifice of the reference wheel.
A processor device may further be used for actuating the driving device to rotate the reference wheel and to align the orifice of the reference wheel with the light emitting device and to allow the light generated by the light emitting device to emit through the orifice of the reference wheel.
A memorizing device may further be provided for storing a time signal, the processor device is provided for actuating the driving device to rotate the reference wheel and the target wheel and to the time signal stored in the memorizing device.
A device may further be used for receiving the time signal and sending the time signal to the memorizing device.
Further objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a careful reading of a detailed description provided hereinbelow, with appropriate reference to accompanying drawings.